Abience is a noun that means a strong urge to avoid something. 

Our word of the day comes from the Latin word abeo (AH bay oh) which means ‘to go away.’ Its descendent abience is commonly used in a psychological context, for example: the patient’s abience of sporting events suggests he’s had some bad experiences with them in the past. It is common for people to avoid activities that remind them of childhood pain.

Philocaly is a noun that means a love of beauty. 

You may know from other words of Greek origin like philosophy and philomath that philocaly’s first five letters — PHILO — indicate a love of something. In this case it’s a love of beauty as ‘caly’ comes from the Greek word kallos (KAHL os) meaning ‘beauty.’

My love of Ancient Greek art is driven by a philocaly. The stunning beauty of the way the human body is presented is difficult to find anywhere else.

Sough is a verb that means to rustle, moan or sigh. 

Sough comes to us from Middle English. It looks and sounds a lot like the word ‘sigh,’ but sough is a broader word that may refer either to the sound coming from the lungs of an exasperated person or the wind rustling through trees. 

As a kid I always loved the sounds of our rural neighborhood. In particular, the way the wind would sough through the trees always felt lovely.

Galere is a noun that means a group of undesirables. 

Galere comes from French, and you may be able to guess from the word’s spelling that it shares an ancestor with the word ‘gallery.’ It may help to think of a galere as a gallery of unpleasant people. 

Those thugs in the hallway frightened me. I’d never seen a more menacing galere of creeps in my life.

Friable is an adjective that means easily broken or crumbled. 

Friable comes for the Latin word friabilis (free AH bee lees) meaning ‘crumble.’ A friable object can be easily crumbled or broken into many pieces. 

The guys in the moving van did a horrible job with our dishes. They placed the most friable objects in areas they were most likely to be damaged.

Wifty is an adjective that means light-headed or scatterbrained. 

It’s appropriate that our word of the day is a synonym of unclear. But its linguistic origin is unclear. But we do know that it was first used by an early twentieth century poet and novelist named Gilbert Frankau.

Tommy seemed wifty after taking a blow to the head. This worried us until we realized that Tommy always seemed a little scatter-brained whether he’d taken a blow to the head or not.

Alate is an adjective that means having wings.

The Latin word Alatus (AH lah toos) is where our word of the day comes from. It’s mainly used to refer to insects or seeds. 

Before my trip to Florida, I’d never seen an alate ant. Having an ant flying toward me was a pretty scary sight for an eight-year-old.

Skeuomorph is a noun that means a digital object or feature that imitates a physical object.

Our word of the day has its roots in Greek. It’s a combination of the word skeuos (SKYOO ohss) meaning ‘container’ and morphe (MORE fay) meaning ‘form.’ Together they refer to some kind of digital object that imitates a physical object — like a trash can icon on your computer that indicates where you put files to discard. 

I couldn’t figure out why the skeuomorph of a cassette tape puzzled my daughter so much. I soon figured out that the kids of her generation have never seen a cassette tape in real life. 

Métier is a noun that refers to an activity one is good at.

As you might guess, metier (MAY tee ay) comes directly from the French. It may refer to a person’s career or just something they’re good at. 

I used to think I’d be great at golf if I ever tried it. But after a few rounds with Mr. Glover, I realized the sport wasn’t my metier. 

Acolyte is a noun that means one who assists. 

Acolyte originated from the Greek work akolouthos (ah KOE loo thos) but it was the Catholic Church who popularized the term by using acolyte to describe someone who has been ordained to carry wine, water and lights at Mass services. 

The word still has this meaning today, but it may also be used to describe someone who is a sidekick or assistant in the same way that an acolyte in the church could be considered an assistant to a priest. 

Sheryl’s workload as manager of this office is way too big. She could use an acolyte to take care of the tasks she has to perform.